Vivian Hewitt

Vivian Hewitt (1888–1965) was a pioneering Welsh aviator. Born in Grimsby, he moved to Bodfari, Denbighshire, Wales, his mother's family home, on the death of his father during his childhood.[1]

On 26 April 1912, Hewitt successfully completed a flight between Holyhead and Dublin, landing in the Phoenix Park. Interviewed by the press, he expressed the view that Damer Leslie Allen, who had disappeared a few days earlier whilst attempting the same flight, had been insufficiently experienced as an aviator for a task of such difficulty.[2]

Although widely reported to be the first person to cross the sea from Great Britain to Ireland in an aeroplane, several days earlier,[1] on 22 April Denys Corbett Wilson had flown from Goodwick in Pembrokeshire to Enniscorthy.[4][5] Nevertheless, the view was expressed at the time that Hewitt's flight was "a more difficult and dangerous feat" than Corbett Wilson's.[6]

Hewitt was also a keen ornithologist and set up a bird sanctuary at his home of Bryn Aber at Cemlyn Bay, Anglesey, which is now managed by The North Wales Wildlife Trust.[7] He was known as the "world’s greatest private Great Auk collector", as he built up a collection of the skins and eggs of these extinct birds.[8] His specimens are now in museums in Cardiff, Birmingham, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati.[9]